Sacrifice
by TheOceanBreathesSalty
Summary: There's Alex and Max and Justin and Jalex and some Jerry, which I've never done before. Disclaimed. Pleaseeeee review! Thanks! Oneshot!


(m a x P O V)

This was horrible.

The first time you were seeing your siblings in _three fucking years_ and they looked terrible. Justin with tears leaking from blank eyes and staining his grief twisted face. Your older, stronger, wiser, so-freaking-close perfect brother was crying because his heart was breaking.

His heart was breaking because of your other sibling.

Alex was lying on a too-white hospital bed, unconscious and bloody and beaten up. Slashes ran down the left side of her face and bruises covered all the visible parts of her body. Purple covered her face and there was maroon and red and yellow and green and violet covering the parts of her arms and legs you can see.

She looked broken.

And by consequence, Justin did too.

You weren't sure what had happened, all you know is that you got a call at three in the morning from a crying and panicking Justin. He was already at the hospital and he wanted you to know that she was in the emergency room and that there had been an accident and she was hurt.

You don't think he meant to say that he couldn't live without her.

But he did.

And it resulted in you running from your room, completely forgetting that you had magic at all as you waved down a cab and ran into the waiting room, still in your pajamas and you hair all mussed and your face wet from tears you don't remember crying.

"Justin. What happened?" You almost don't want to ask, because your brother is sitting there looking haggard and broken and you aren't sure that you want to know.

But she's your sister.

You have to know what happened.

He doesn't respond, he just looks at you and you realize that he's taking in all the changes that have occurred since the two of you last saw each other. It had been a _long_ three years, and you had shot up an entire half-foot, your hair was shorter and you weren't as skinny.

Justin looked different too. He was slightly taller, not as tall as you though. His clothes were fancy, a tux with the shirt untucked and the bow undone, like he had been at an important dinner or something before disaster struck. There was such great contrast, because he _looked_ good, healthy or whatever. But his eyes… they were shattered and vacant and blank and a whole bunch of other words that you couldn't remember or never even knew but that all meant _broken_.

"Max," he doesn't answer your question, just says your name, but you don't really blame him because honestly, you aren't sure if he even heard you.

"_Justin_. What happened?" You ask again, slightly calmer and at a lower volume as you slide into the seat next to him.

"We were…" and he stops, a sob choking him and he has to clear his throat before he can speak again. "We were walking home from our anniversary dinner an-"

You cut him off without meaning to. "Anniversary dinner? What anniversary?" And _Jesus Christ_ it sucks that you haven't talked to your siblings for three years.

"Our marriage. It's our first anniversary." He says it defiantly, as if expecting you to react like your parents and begin screaming at him.

You don't.

Instead you just sit there, slightly stunned but unwilling to show your surprise, and wait for him to tell you the rest of what happened.

"Well like I was saying, we were walking home and this idiot driver was about to hit me and she shoved me out of the way and then all of a sudden she's there on the ground bleeding and I can hear someone screaming and I think it might've been me and _oh my god_ what if she isn't okay?" he says this all in one breath before breaking down again, burying his face in his hands.

You wrap an arm around his shoulders and decide to ignore the fact that Justin and Alex got married and didn't tell you.

That's probably your own fault anyways.

_

* * *

(J U S T I N p o v)_

_What if she's not okay? What if she dies? What would you do without her?_

_All these questions are running on a relentless loop in your head, unanswered and unanswerable._

_You watch as they wheel her off into some surgery room, your beautiful Alex. She's still beautiful, covered in bruises and cuts and __**oh dear lord **__they're your fault._

_You suddenly realize that you cannot do this alone, can't breathe and deal by yourself._

_So you call Max._

_And then he's there before you know it and you realize that you don't even know what time it is. You were happy, then you weren't, and now you're numb._

_That's all you know._

_Max shows up and your little brother looks so different that you can't even respond to him for a second. _

_You can't believe that you missed out on so much of his life._

_But then he repeats the question and the story spills from your lips and then your crying again and he's comforting you._

_And god did you miss him._

_So you accept his comfort and ignore the fact that he hurt you and Alex so badly three years ago. _

_That isn't important now._

_Now all that matters is Alex._

_And what her doctor says when he steps out of the operating room._

**

* * *

(t h r e e **_y-e-a-r-s_** a g o)**

**(j e r r y P O V)**

"**Mom… Dad… Max… We have something we need to talk to you about." You look up at your two eldest children, smiling at Justin who looks kind of nervous and Alex who just spoke.**

"**Sure sweetie. What's up?" Your wife says, looking at her anxious children curiously.**

"**Um. Well. It's just." Justin stutters, seemingly unable to complete a full sentence. You exchange a worried glance with Teresa, unsure where this is going.**

"**Yes?" Max drawls impatiently, obviously wanting them to get a move on so that he could leave.**

"**We're together." Alex blurts out, covering her mouth as soon as the sentence escapes.**

"**Together? Well of course you are. You guys are friends now. I haven't seen you fight in ages! I've been so proud." Teresa says, Max nodding along in agreement with her. **

**You, however, you don't move.**

**Because you have this terrible suspicion that that isn't the type of together that they meant.**

**Now, you aren't the brightest guy on the planet and to be honest you're kind of a dork most of the time. But you do know your kids.**

**And right now, these two are scared and cautious and neither one is _ever_ like that, not unless it's something really important. Both of them, especially Justin, had always came and talked to you if they needed to. Now though… now they looked like they weren't sure they should be sharing this information with you.**

**And that made you nervous.**

**Because they wouldn't be frightened and uncertain if it was something as simple as them being together as friends.**

"**Not that kind of together." Justin said, finally spitting out a complete sentence.**

**And your heart nearly stops.**

"**Then what kind of together?" you're dimly aware of Max asking, but you've locked gazes with your equally horrified wife, and your suspicions are becoming all too real.**

"**The kind of together that isn't necessarily acceptable." Alex grimaces and dances around the subject by using pretty phrasing, the same way she always has.**

"**Oh," is all that escapes Max's lips before he sits down hard on the couch, clasping his hands together between his knees.**

**You know he's upset. **

**He just won the wizarding competition. **

**He was supposed to be celebrating. **

**Instead he was listening to his siblings admit their incestuous relationship to their family.**

**That wasn't exactly what one would call a cause for celebration.**

"_**Together**_**?" shrieks through the room, and then your wife is off. She's screaming in English and Spanish, alternating between the two with no clear reasoning.**

**You just sit there, numb.**

**It's your little girl.**

**And your oldest son.**

**And they're **_**together**_**.**

**The thought doesn't make any sense. You don't get why they're together or why they're telling you or anything at all really. You sit there silently as Teresa yells and rages and threatens your children, Max still sitting silently on the couch.**

**Then, she's saying the unforgettable, unforgivable, can't-take-those-back words.**

"_**Get out. Now. Don't come back.**_**" She hisses the words and Justin is frowning and Alex is almost crying and Max is still just sitting wordlessly.**

**They turn to you, Teresa and Alex and Justin, all three looking at you as if you have the answers in this situation.**

**And you know this is an impossible choice.**

**Accept something unacceptable and keep two of your children.**

**Or support your wife and watch as Justin and Alex disappear from your life.**

**You try to think fast because they won't wait for long. You sit there, thoughts whirling, and open your mouth at their impatient looks.**

**You still don't know what you're going to say, even as the words begin to leave your lips.**

"**I'll help you pack." And Alex starts crying and Justin wraps an arm around her shoulders and Teresa looks relieved.**

**You feel **_**guilty**_**.**

**But only a little bit.**

**You also feel a release, like you did the right thing, like this was the only way to keep your wife, like this was the only **_**acceptable**_** thing to do.**

**You follow the two of them upstairs where they shove all their favorite belongings into bags and then they're walking back down the stairs, past the still silent Max and the still fuming Teresa.**

**You watch, slightly uncertain about your decision but unwilling to let something this **_**big **_**go unnoticed and unacknowledged.**

**They leave without a glance back.**

* * *

(p r e s e n t _**t-i-m-e**_ a g a i n)

_(J U S T I N p o v)_

_Alex is out of surgery._

_She's lying too still and too silent on an awful hospital bed and she's got stitches and cuts and bruises and incisions everywhere and you cannot freaking breathe._

_Max is standing besides you in her room, regret clear in his eyes._

_You feel like you should say something to him, try and reassure him in some way, but you just can't. You're still hurt that he hasn't spoken to either one of you for the past three years and you're grateful he's here but you're freaking out about Alex and you don't really feel like dealing with him right now._

_You know if you start talking to him then apologies and conversations and explanations will all take place, and you can't deal with that._

_Not right now._

_Nights and days blur together and the only time you leave the hospital is when the nurses make you. It's been a week according to Max, who comes and goes at random times._

_The bruises on her face are better, but the cuts are no less vivid and they look inflamed._

_Then everything comes to a screeching halt with the blaring noise of a heart machine flat lining the only thing you can hear._

_The doctors are yelling things and the nurses are trying to get you out of the room but the only thing you can do is stare in horror at Alex's body as it arches off the bed from the shocks that are trying to restart her heart._

_The shocks aren't working._

_And all you can hear is the drone of the flat line._

* * *

(m a x P O V)

It's been one minute and five seconds since the hospital officially declared Alex dead.

You're already out the doors and heading towards your apartment, trying to remember where you put the spell book and the family wand.

You spent the last few years guilty because you didn't stand up for your siblings, didn't talk to them for a long, _long_ three years.

There was a way to rectify that.

You were going to take it.

But you had to _hurry_. There was only a fifteen-minute window and it had already been six minutes and thirteen seconds.

Seven minutes and forty seconds in and you're back in your apartment, grabbing your wand and looking for the spell book.

You find it with only four minutes left.

The book falls open and you flip to the right page and Latin begins to slide smoothly from your lips as the wand clenched in your fist begins to glow.

You didn't do _anything_ to help them when they got kicked out.

They were your best friends, your family, your everything and you just sat there and watched as they got thrown out of their home for being in love.

You wasted three years feeling guilty about it.

But now, not you could fix it.

There's one minute left and you're almost done with the spell and you wish that you could tell Alex you loved her and Justin you missed him but there isn't anymore time.

There is only _one_ way to bring someone back to life.

A trade.

You're trading your life for Alex's and then her and Justin can live their happily ever after and you won't feel guilty anymore, because, well, you're gonna be dead, but the point is that you _didn't _do anything originally and now you can and now you _are_.

There are drawbacks to this spell.

Otherwise everyone would use it.

It not only results in the casters death, it also takes the family magic from that generation completely. So, basically, you're killing yourself and the Russo family magic unless Justin and Alex break _all_ the rules and have a kid.

Eleven seconds.

The spell's _done_.

You're world goes bright white from the light admitted from your wand before it fractures and disappears and then your world is fading, fading, fading.

Gone.

_**(a l e x P O V)**_

_**It's been three months since you got hit by a car.**_

_**Three months since you died.**_

_**Three months since Max died.**_

_**You and Justin had left, done with New York and America. You moved to Italy and settled down, working on your art while Justin opened a restaurant.**_

_**He was always more like your father than he realized.**_

_**You cry at night sometimes for Max, missing him and wanting him back but you had already been missing him for three years. You suppose that you miss the **__possibility__** of Max the most, of him maybe forgiving you, of getting to know him again.**_

_**You wish you could ask him why he did it, why he sacrificed himself and the magic just to bring you back to life. But you try not to think about it too much because you know you aren't going to get any answers and **_**what-ifs**_** never helped anyone.**_

_**Your body is finally healed all the way from the accident, no more pain when you moved or aches when you stood.**_

_**Justin and you are content, happy.**_

_**He misses Max more than he will admit and a while ago you found a letter written to Max from Justin, thanking him for saving you.**_

_**You sometimes miss your old life and wonder if you should call your parents, but then you remember that they tried to take Justin from you and you suddenly don't feel do nostalgic.**_

_**Sometimes you feel guilty, that Max is gone and you aren't.**_

_**But Max sacrificed himself so that you could live.**_

_**So that's what you would do.**_

_**Live.**_

_**With Justin, of course.**_

_**

* * *

**_Um. I don't know why my fingers keep killing my favorite characters. They won't listen to me. I apologize. Thanks to Not Just a Nerd and WyldCard4 once again for being such awesome reviewers. You guys are awesome.

Please let me know what you think! Reviews make my day!


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